Jagat

The first verse of the  Gīta-govinda has been a source of confusion to scholars and devotees probably since it first appeared. There are a number of problems with it, all of which can be summarized as "it does not fit" what we know about the Radha-Krishna story in any source, Puranic or folk, prior to GG. Moreover, it seems to have little to do directly with the rest of GG.

Manuscript painting from Gita-govinda. Photo from Jayadeva Foundation Trust . (5) Rasa-niṣpatti Now we come to last verse in our series. This is also the last verse that Rupa Goswami quotes from an external source in Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi . The context is the following verse, which is the last "idea" that Sri Rupa presents in his discussion of madhura-rasa . vidagdhānāṁ mitho līlā-vilāsena yathā sukham | na tathā samprayogeṇa syād evaṁ rasikā viduḥ || Clever lovers find that there is more pleasure in all the varieties of their mutual dealings than there is in sexual union per se. This is the conclusion of the knowers of rasa. (15.253) Jayadeva's verse is given as an illustration of this point: pratyūhaḥ pulakāṅkureṇa niviḍāśleṣe nimeṣeṇa ca krīḍākūta-vilokite’dhara-sudhā-pāne kathā-narmabhiḥ ānandādhigamena manmatha-kalā-yuddhe’pi yasminn abhūd udbhūtaḥ sa tayor babhūva suratārambhaḥ priyambhāvukaḥ As the battle of the love arts began, there...

Jayadev Foundation Trust (4) Radha, the Empress of Love Our fourth essential verse of the Gīta-govinda  or Gita-govinda pañca-ślokī, comes in the final chapter and summarizes the last prabandha or song 24. racaya kucayoś citraṁ patraṁ kuruṣva kapolayor ghaṭaya jaghane kāñcīṁ mugdha-srajā kavarī-bharaṁ | kalaya valaya-śreṇīṁ pāṇau pade maṇi-nūpurāv iti nigaditaḥ prītaḥ pitāmbaro’pi tathākarot || Radha said, "Draw pictures on my breasts, decorate my cheeks with dots of musk, tie a sash of bells around my hips, braid my hair with a charming garland. Place bangles on my wrists and jeweled ankle bells on my feet." So being told, the yellow-robed Krishna, being pleased, did so. (12.25) This is the last verse that contains a description related to the overall dramatic theme of the Gīta-govinda . Rupa Goswami quotes it at UN 5.93 as an example of the svādhīna-bhartṛkā . As we have been saying, the eight situations of the heroine are the principal theme ...

From Jayadev Foundation Trust . (3) Radharani's māna viharati vane rādhā sādhāraṇa-praṇaye harau vigalita-nijotkarṣād īrṣyā-vaśena gatā'nyataḥ kvacid api latā-kuñje guñjan-madhu-vrata-maṇḍalī mukhara-śikhare līnā dīnāpy uvāca rahaḥ sakhīm|| When Radha saw Hari frolicking in the forest, treating all the women with equal affection, she felt her own special status had melted away. Envy and anger arose in her, and she went off. Somewhere, in a vine covered bower, where bees buzzed in circles overhead, she hid, and forlorn in her solitude, confided to her friend. If the first two verses of our five described Krishna as the viṣaya and then as the āśraya of love; now this verse points to the essential mechanism that transforms him from the one role to the other. This will be further explained in our analysis of the fifth verse. The third verse of the Gīta-govinda pañca-ślokī appears in the latter portion (verses 25-35) of BRS 3.5, the abbreviated chapte...

(1) Krishna, the Embodiment of the Erotic Rasa viśveṣām anurañjanena janayann ānandam indīvara- śreṇī-śyāmala-komalair upanayann aṅgair anaṅgotsavam | svacchandaṁ vraja-sundarībhir abhitaḥ praty-aṅgam āliṅgitaḥ śṛṅgāraḥ sakhi mūrtimān iva madhau mugdho hariḥ krīḍati || By his pleasure giving, he brings joy to all the worlds; With his limbs, as soft and dark as blue lotus flowers, he inaugurates the festival of love. O friend Radhe! Hari frolicks in the spring, like the embodiment of śṛṅgāra-rasa ; completely enchanted by the beauties of Braja, who surround him and wantonly embrace his every limb. Our first "essential" verse is GG 1.48, which as already stated above, is pivotal in the introduction both to the Gīta-govinda and to Rupa Goswami's treatment of the madhura-rasa . In GG, it comes after the scene has been set for the story by describing the springtime ( prabandha 3) and the rāsa dance as performed in the spring ( prabandha 4). The first two son...

I have written a fair amount about the Gīta-govinda on this blog, but mostly bits and pieces without a coherent argument. Or at least, the argument has been expressed repeatedly but without being fully defended with evidence. So I am in the process of doing so now. The general thesis is this: Prior to Rupa Goswami there are a number of different strands of the Radha-Krishna lila tradition. According to Krishnadas Kaviraj, who states it several times in his Caitanya-caritāmṛta , Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was particularly fond of five devotional works or authors through which he relished the rasas of bhakti to Krishna. To these five of course should be added the Bhāgavata itself. caṇḍīdāsa, vidyāpati, rāyera nāṭaka-gīti, karṇāmṛta, śrī-gīta-govinda svarūpa-rāmānanda-sane, mahāprabhu rātri-dine, gāya, śune — parama ānanda Night and day, in the company of Swarup Damodar and Ramananda Ray, Mahaprabhu would sing or listen to the songs of Chandidas, Vidyapati, the musical play of Ramamanan...

So, seeing that the time was ripe for Hari Katha, I have decided to try a daily serial. So we are going to do the last song of Jayadeva's Gita Govinda, which is the image of the svādhīna-bhartṛkā. So, just to prepare, as a prerequisite, you go and enjoy the following about Jayadeva's Krishna . What is a nāgara ? And why is God a nāgara ? But that will have to await another today, for today, Radha is on the stage and it is the final dramatic scene of the Gita Govinda , the lovers have just made love and it is a HAPPY ending! And now to culminate the scene, Radha, like an empress on her flower bed, looks toward Krishna and says, "Peel me a grape." And Krishna, well I don't have to tell you what Krishna has been through!! If I were to tell that story, I would have to start the Gīta-govinda at the very beginning and that would take us a bit out of the way. Let us just say, he is very, very thankful to all the gods and saints that Radha has finally accepted h...

The hot season is here. Satya Narayan Dasji sets off to his summer tour of Europe and America. We spent the last few weeks cramming in the last twenty or so anucchedas of Paramātma-sandarbha , and I must say it was invigorating. I will probably have occasion to talk a little more about Paramātma-sandarbha before I finish editing the translation. I was thinking of my good fortune to be here in Vrindavan and my day job is having to study and understand Jiva Goswami's Paramātma-sandarbha ! I just hope that Sri Jiva Prabhu lets me help work on the last two. In the meantime, the hot season is here, and Vrindavan is beginning to bake. But I notice that last year I had one of the most productive months where this blog is concerned. I think I did a bit of a housecleaning, like I am trying to do now also. Still trying to come up with a magnum opus out of all this. The last two days, I took a bit of a brain vacation, adjusting to the change of season, remembering a bit how much I en...

Watercolor by  Anjali Tripathi   The next section of SKK is the Vaṁśī-khaṇḍa ; it is the second to last in the book, comparatively long with a total of 42 songs. It does not appear that any pages (169-189) from this section were lost. The plot is not particularly complex, but stands out for having some of the most powerful songs in the entire work. The principal subject of the chapter is the effect of Krishna’s flute on Radha and it ends with her theft of the flute, with the attendant consequences. Krishna's flute is, of course, one of the symbols most closely associated with his iconography, and has a great deal of significance, which helps to account for its resilience. For Rupa Goswami, it is one of the four special characteristics of Krishna that separate him from all other forms of the Vishnu-complex of deities. sarvādbhuta-camatkāra- līlā-kallola-vāridhiḥ | atulya-madhura-prema-maṇḍita-priya-maṇḍalaḥ ||41|| trijagan-mānasākarṣi-muralī-kala-kūjitaḥ | asam...